2024 science fiction novella, first of a trilogy. Ada Lamarr is a
salvager, but there's a hole in the side of her ship and her suit air
supply is running low. Hope that rescuer responds soon…
I was annoyed by this book for a particular reason, which I
suspect may not annoy everyone. It's written in a first person present
tense narrative from Ada's point of view, which is fine. But as when
reading The Ivy Tree I found myself wondering: to whom is this
narrative addressed? Specifically, Ada drops hints from quite early
on that all is not as it appears and she's up to something nefarious,
which produces tension as the crew of the rescue ship comes to trust
and even like her, but why would she need to keep quiet about it in
her own thoughts to herself? Or in a report to someone else after all
the nefarious stuff has happened? And if it a report to someone who
isn't meant to know about the dodgy stuff, why even hint?
Also, maybe it's just my puzzle-solving mind, but I found the hints
about what she's up to pretty obvious, to the extent that I was
slightly thrown by the explicit explanation at the end of the main
narrative: yeah, I already knew you'd done that, you practically
told me you'd done that, why are you telling me again? It felt like
being led by the hand through the solution to a puzzle.
Ada is angry, which is not a trait I usually find appealing in a
protagonist. Because of the mystery (and presumably because Revis
wants to avoid infodumping) we don't get any details about why she's
angry except in the broadest strokes, which makes my sympathy harder
to get; though Revis' afterword makes it clear she was writing from a
place of anger herself, which helps. Ada's also playing the role
(which to some extent may be real) of an agent of chaos (a non-sexy
sort of manic pixie dream girl), which I think I was intended to enjoy
more than I did.
The blurb, which of course isn't Revis' fault, calls this a "high
octane sexy space heist", which I don't think it is. Ada finds one of
her rescuers attractive but (being at least a little bit grown-up)
mostly doesn't act on it, especially as she's clearly planning to do
something he'll disapprove of; as for high-octane, there's some
action, but mostly in the form of danger that has to be stayed away
from. All right, it is a heist, and it happens in space.
(Also don't be fooled by the occasional Sciency Words, this is very
soft SF.)
Overall I thought many things about the book were trying to appeal to
a sort of reader which does not include me. Which is a shame, because
behind that mildly-annoying surface flash there's some interesting
worldbuilding, and while most of the characters are pretty shallow Ada
at least shows some promise for the future when she's speaking in her
own voice rather than consciously not mentioning things she has no
reason not to mention.
One of the things I did like: I mentioned "the end of the main
narrative", because things conclude in a shower of appendices, taking
the form of official reports and communications on the incident, but
with footnotes as people try to work out just what Ada was up to and
whom she might have been working for.